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Ian Macdonald Talk

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2008-03-01 00:00

"Expulsion, Rendition, Detention and Torture"

As part of the celebration of GPI Trustee Ian Macdonald’s 40th anniversary at the bar and 25th anniversary as a QC, the GPI are pleased to host a talk with one of the country’s most respected legal minds. Some of the issues Ian will discuss in his talk include: the origins of torture and indefinite detention by the US on the basis of obtaining intelligence to prevent another 9/11 attack; the attempts to give these measures a cloak of legality and how the US administration sells all them to the American public as acts of virtue and philanthropy; the contrast with the British use of internment and control orders, which have only the thinnest veneer of legality; Ian’s own role as a Special Advocate in SIAC and why he resigned; what we need to protect both the public and fundamental liberties and human rights; a brief history of our fundamental liberties; a brief outline of the essential characteristics of acts of religious terrorism; and the need to look at the substance of the so-called ‘terrorist threat’ rather than labels.